What Factors Affect Software Testing in Future?

There is still a future for software testing because nobody is perfect at everything (requirement gathering, design, develop, testing, deployment, maintenance, upgrade, etc.).Make sure your software testing work (comparison of the software generated with the specification) adds value to the product and your customers and is not something that anybody can perform. If it does, you'll have a place to stay.

Five Factors That Will Affect Software Testing in the Future:

• Software testing has changed over the past few decades in terms of both the tools used to carry out various tasks and the attitudes of the individuals utilising those tools. 
• Only a small number of tools were used in software testing in the past, but today we have access to a huge selection of tools, both open source and proprietary. 
• Likewise, people have started thinking of testers as information brokers instead of gatekeepers, and there have been a lot of positive developments in the agile world that have contributed to significant changes in the processes that teams follow in their software development lifecycle. These developments can be attributed to technological advancements.
• Technology has undoubtedly had an impact on how we test software, and that impact will only increase as technology develops.
•  Examples include the way we view software, assess risks, consider complexity, design our test approach and strategy, and aid in the release of a stable product to the customer. Here are five major trends that we are now observing that will influence software testing in the future.

1.Machine intelligence:

• Using mobile web, native, and hybrid applications to provide the user with a mobile experience was the talk of the town around five years ago. The current fad word is AI. It is used in autonomous vehicles, home assistants (Alexa is a favourite among people), computer vision, healthcare, finance, and now software testing.

• Few trustworthy tools are now available on the market that may be used to author and carry out functional testing, end-to-end testing, and regression testing. They are mostly focused on UI-based test automation; as the user adds more tests, the algorithm gets smarter and more stable, which benefits the tests.Here are some advantages that testing may start to experience as a result of AI:
• Easier test creation
• Lower test script maintenance requirements
• Less erratic tests
• Allowing non-technical individuals to begin automating
• CI/CD integration made simpler
• Additional reusable tests
• For instance, using Appium, Java, and Cucumber, I created an automated framework. Despite having a strong framework and a lot of freedom when building custom code to carry out different tasks, I frequently struggled with the common maintenance issue. 
• The tests started failing when a developer modified one of the element's attributes that were already tested for by my automated tests. In order to cover the newly implemented functionality, I could have saved time by building new automation code, but I instead spent a lot of effort maintaining current tests.
• Currently, the AI's extracted dynamic locators can be used to remedy this issue.

2. DevOps:

• The software development lifecycle (SDLC), which includes infrastructure management, is continuously automated and monitored thanks to improved collaboration between software development teams and operations teams according to DevOps.

The following are the modifications I see:

• There is a requirement to begin automation at the outset of the SDLC and make sure that almost all test cases are automated.
• To maintain a smooth CI/CD cycle, all QA jobs would need to be coordinated.
• In order to guarantee that there is ongoing monitoring in the production environment, a high level of collaboration would be required.
• Standardisation of each QA environment would be necessary.
• Automation is the key to all the aforementioned developments. Automation and DevOps go hand in hand; without one, the other won't function. Shorter and more reliable release cycles can be achieved in this situation with the aid of clever people and tools.
• There was very little interaction between the development, testing, and operations teams where I worked. In terms of more bugs entering the production environment, a shaky CI/CD infrastructure, and reduced insight into production statistics and monitoring, we were observing many holes in the SDLC cycle. The team opted to apply a DevOps strategy after identifying these gaps, and everyone started working together and contributing during each stage of the SDLC. This process began with gathering requirements and continued through production release and monitoring.
• The team's morale improved, more automation was implemented, and the entire team began operating as a cohesive unit as a result of the increased culture of collaboration.

3. QA as a Service:

• We now have QAaaS, just as we do with SaaS (software as a service), IaaS (infrastructure as a service), and PaaS (platform as a service). This has gained popularity as a means of meeting business needs for software testing over the past few years.
• Companies with QAaaS solutions facilitate several steps in your software testing process by offering:
• Methods for managing and maintaining test cases
• Tools for test automation that need less coding
• Features for robust test reporting that include logs, videos, and images
• Easy CI system integration
• Mobile devices, virtual machines, secure networks, and human testers are examples of available resources. Having to maintain my own server boxes to run my automated tests has been a significant issue for me throughout the past seven years of automating. 
• The server computers experience a variety of issues, including running out of storage space, a spotty internet connection, slow processing speed due to the volume of tests that are run continuously throughout the week, and the requirement for frequent OS, build tool, security patch, IDE, and other updates.
•  These issues can be resolved by using QaaS providers, who can handle all of these duties for you so that team members can focus on other important responsibilities.

4.The Internet of Things:

• The internet of things (IoT) has gained significant attention with the introduction of wearables, smart homes, connected cars, and other cloud-based technology. The fact that there are so many communications and integrations happening right now, every second, is what makes these devices so fascinating.
• Let's examine the many communications that occur with a wearable fitness tracker at a high level. The fitness tracker and smartphone app must first connect with one another
• For instance, when I was employed by a business that handled travel reservations, our team developed a brand-new WatchOS app for the Apple Watch (when it was first introduced by Apple). The app included a few, but helpful, features like the ability to view reservations, notifications, rewards information, and the locations of hotels, flights, and rental cars. 
• When I was testing this software, I observed strange issues when the Apple Watch app was linked to the same app on my phone: The Apple Watch displayed nothing but a black screen when I dismissed the app on the phone; however, when I opened the app on the phone once more, the black screen vanished, and the Apple Watch app continued to function perfectly.

5. Robots:

• These days, testing is done by robots. Although some would view this as concerning for their job security, I still maintain that the human mind cannot be replaced. Humans would still be required to programme the robots and supervise them to make sure they are acting in accordance with expectations.
•  Technological developments are already having an impact on how we conduct software testing. Additionally, it has prompted businesses to reevaluate their organisational structures: the QA team is heading toward becoming integrated into the development team, and the entire team will be responsible for quality. In order to make products smarter and more beneficial for their clients, it will also become crucial for the research and development group to contact often with the development group.
• Additionally, it will be necessary to have processes in place to deal with massive amounts of data and have enough computational capacity to sift through this data to find meaningful information and feedback. Finally, for all of this to become a reality, businesses must implement lean processes and increase transparency to avoid getting in the way of innovation. Effective growth will require lean transformation.

CONCLUSION:

• In order to approach software testing more risk-basedly in the future, test automation will undergo major change. AI has the capacity to develop test cases based on actual user data and learn from various user flows.
• The process of developing software includes software testing as a crucial step. It is a part of each stage of the lifecycle and is not a single activity that happens immediately after the implementation of the code. Consideration during requirements formulation will be the first step in developing a good test plan.
• Software testing is a very rewarding career because as you gain experience, you're promoted to more senior positions. Numerous positions in this area are open at well-known IT organisations. The job's future potential is constantly expanding, hence the career is secure and expanding.